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Sanae Ishida

A crafty little atelier in a grey city

What’s Your Cutie Mark? (Or, How Do You Find Your Passion?)

February 4, 2014

I'm mulling. You know how I get into that mode, the one in which I go round and round just...brooding. A little while ago, K went through an intense period of wanting to know what her singular talent is. "What am I really good at??" she kept asking me. I finally deduced that this newfound interest was because she'd been binge-watching My Little Pony and became fascinated with the idea of a cutie mark. "Mama," she told me, "your cutie mark would be a sewing machine and a paintbrush. And your ... Read more

Filed in: black and white, illustration, life • by sanae • 23 Comments

Happy Friday + Randomness

January 31, 2014

Happy Friday! I've been a busy bee. Once I declare something publicly, due to my powerfully guilty conscience I have a hard time not following through. This means I've been steadily working on my tolerations. Eliminating them, that is. I started out with 108 items (!) after going through each room in the house and other miscellaneous fodder. Currently, I'm down to 93, and rather than doing a blow-by-blow review of everything I accomplished which would surely send you and me both running for the ... Read more

Filed in: black and white, Community, illustration • by sanae • 16 Comments

Valentine’s Bookmarks Download

January 29, 2014

Still not indestructible in spite of the wonderful soup. However, I'm feeling more human and I've been procrastinating using some paints and doodling with Valentine's Day on my mind. And what do I like to do when I have a bunch of sketches? Make bookmarks, of course. How are these different from the tags I've made before, you may ask? They're not, but I thought they would sound fancier as bookmarks. They're multi-purpose (case in point: K insisted on wearing one as a necklace)! Plus, maybe ... Read more

Filed in: download, gouache, illustration • by sanae • 16 Comments

Kind of Reeling Over Here…

January 21, 2014

Well...how shall I start this? I've been sitting on this unexpected turn of events for so long, it stopped feeling real a good while ago. Friends, I am publishing a book. There. I wrote it. It feels a tiny bit more real. I bet you think it's going to be a sewing book, but nope. Even better. I am going to be writing and illustrating my very own children's book!!!! When I was a kid, and had to go through the usual rigmarole of answering the question, "What do you want to be when you ... Read more

Filed in: illustration, life • by sanae • 97 Comments

Happy Friday + Randomness

January 10, 2014

Happy Friday! I'm guest posting over at the KCW blog again today, hooray! You'll get a sneak peak of my winter sewing plans and I've featured some cute outfits I'd like to sew from a couple of new Japanese sewing books I got recently. ************************************************************ A conversation I had with K on the way to school yesterday... K: When I grow up, I want to be an inventor. Me: Oh yeah? K: Yeah, I'm going to invent this cool brush with a tree on the end ... Read more

Filed in: black and white, illustration, life • by sanae • 14 Comments

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SHIBUI: THE JAPANESE ART OF FINDING BEAUTY IN AGIN SHIBUI: THE JAPANESE ART OF FINDING BEAUTY IN AGING won an award! Thank you, @nautilusbookawards — what an honor! 🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡 @sasquatchbooks
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